I often get calls from people wanting to “beef up” the performance of their EIFS walls. There are some things you can do to improve performance and this month’s column has a potpourri of strategies for common problems.

I began my multi-year involvement with LEED and the USGBC as an architect dedicated to the design of greener buildings at about the time the LEED v1.0 pilot program was coming to a close.

Since when did architects become responsible for ensuring occupant health resulting from exposure to building material ingredients?

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Energy began work on the development of a voluntary national scoring system used to quantify commercial building’s energy efficiency.

The variable refrigerant flow is starting to gain popularity in the U.S.

With all the delays LEED v4 has been given, one wonders if it will ever be adopted.

Hard work by Green Globes’ committee—and community—shows it’s only getting better.

The new members come from a range of charities, including Save the Children UK and Versus Arthritis

The Designer Series from Royal Sealers is the industry's first sealer with Micro Crystals. This premium impregnating sealer is embedded with eye-catching, multi-faceted light reflecting Micro Crystals that enhance the appearance of any surface, adding dimension and character.

Karastan’s new Bellingham Collection delivers the warmth and durability of eco-friendly wool in a diverse selection of transitional and traditional styles.

Metallika from Surfaces brings “the beauty of pure aluminum, transformed in sophisticated patterns and color combinations with stone and glass.”

Karndean Design flooring has expanded its premium Art Select Woods collection by adding eleven new skillfully-crafted designs that replicate the beauty of natural timber.

Needle Tech, a four-pattern collection from Tandus Flooring, has won the Best of Year Award for Broadloom Carpet in Interior Design’s 2012 Product Competition.

The inherent beauty of stone is timeless, and Daltile brings that beauty to life with its new Natural Stone and Manufactured Stone collections and line extensions. 

Kindly post currently available links here!

For the first time, manufacturers submitting their latest innovations for the must-see product showcase will simultaneously be considered for the Best of Awards, effectively doubling their products' exposure opportunities.

Campbell purchased noosa as part of the Sovos Brands, Inc. acquisition in March 2024.

Local brewers describe the secret ingredients that put their beers in the holiday spirit. by Joe Streckert

Every year around November, beer aisles and bottle shops get seasonal. Winter ales appear on the shelves right around the time frost starts appearing on the ground. 

Winter beers aren’t any one thing. Holiday brews are more of a feeling than a prescribed list of ingredients or techniques. The closest thing the beer world has to “official” rules about beer styles is the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines. The most recent version of the guidelines advises beer judges to “think more about the declared concept than trying to detect each individual ingredient. Balance, drinkability, and execution of the theme are the most important deciding factors” when evaluating winter beers.

In other words, when professional beer judges evaluate a winter beer, they go by vibes.

“For me it’s a cozy beer,” says Jess Hardie, the head brewer and co-founder of TPK Brewing Company. “Something you want to snuggle up with like a blanket.”

“Seasonal beers can range greatly,” says Lee Perry, the event director for the Portland Holiday Brew Fest. “It can be a real mix of whatever brewers are feeling.”

That being said, there are some common features that give a beer that wintertime feeling.

“For me a winter beer is a bigger, maltier, warm-you-up style of ale. They tend to be a little bit darker and a little less hoppy and higher in alcohol,” says Jake Elder, the brewer and co-founder of Lazy Days Brewing. 

For Elder, beers that focus less on hops and more on malt give him an opportunity to break out the spices and get creative with flavors beyond just hops.

Winter is when beers get loaded up with spices, however adding Christmastime spices and flavorings to beer isn’t some kind of craft brew innovation or cute novelty. According to Edler, adding flavor to beer with whatever brewers had available is a long tradition. A tradition that’s even older than adding hops to beer.

“Hops have been a relatively new phenomenon,” says Elder. “Relatively new” here means only a few centuries. Elder estimates that hops only go back about three or four hundred years. Prior to that, spice blends were more popular for adding bitterness or other flavors to brews. Elder specifically names nutmeg, allspice, and mace as common and longstanding flavorings to beer, all of which are popular in holiday brews to this day.

“Pretty much anything that was used in a spice rack was used in a beer,” says Elder. Maltier beers, says Elder, can taste unbalanced or unfinished on their own. Adding additional flavoring agents can round the beer out and make it more palatable. Darker, maltier wintertime beer provide a ready template for brewers who are ready to evoke wintertime feelings with whatever flavoring agents they have on hand.

Kora and Hardie go beyond the spice rack for their wintertime flavors. Kora adds palo santo wood to one of his porters to create a woody, aged flavor that he says “tastes like a thin mint.” He notes that it’s one of his more popular beers and he makes it available year round. Hardie will add ingredients like Belgian candi sugar, cinnamon, and Mexican cocoa to her beers to make them sweeter and more distinctive.

That being said, hops aren’t entirely absent from the holiday parties. Oregon’s favorite (or maybe most divisive) beer style, the IPA, still shows up plenty in the winter, and other hoppy beers make appearances at seasonal brew festivals. 

Hardie made a black rye IPA that she sees as a wintertime brew. “I would still consider that a winter beer because the rye was so forward,” she says. It clocked in at about 68 IBUs and 6.5% ABV, which Hardie puts on the lower end of the alcohol spectrum for holiday ales. But: “It still had that roasty-toasty flavor that I want in a winter beer,” Hardie says.

According to Elder, winter IPAs tend to lean on hops that give the beers what he calls “Christmas tree flavors”: Notes of spruce and pine needles can make a hoppy beer feel like a holiday one, and he calls out Sierra Nevada’s Celebration IPA as a good example of popular beer that gets its holiday flavors from hops rather than spices. It’s pine-forward and is marketed as a seasonal beer while also retaining the ever-salable identity of IPA.

Perry notes that several of the beers at the Portland Holiday Brew Fest are fresh hop IPAs. December is at the very tail end of the fresh hop season in Oregon, but it’s close enough that juicy, fruity IPAs can just barely be in season when snow begins to fall.

Winter beers also aren’t strictly limited to ales.

“Winter ales are a lot quicker to turn over and get into the market,” says Kora. Lagers generally take longer to brew. That means they also take more planning, take up space in a brewery for a longer period of time, and are more of a logistical issue for brewers. But Kora notes that it is possible to brew lagers like bocks and pilsners that include holiday flavors.

Kora also notes that lagers have a reputation for being not as flavorful, interesting, or high in alcohol as ales. But, he says, that’s a misconception. “Lagers can be just as formidable as ales,” he says. According to him, an enterprising brewer can create a lager that evokes holiday feelings just as much as a smoky, barrel-aged porter might.

Winter ales tend to stay drinkable long after the Christmas decorations have been packed up. Alcohol is a preservative and the higher ABV in a lot of seasonal brews means that the flavors can stick around even into the next holiday season and beyond.

“Winter ales age really well,” says Kora. He notes that as long as high ABV beers are kept at fifty degrees or lower they stay drinkable and can develop in interesting ways.

“Winter beers can change over time and age out really well. They can be really different beers in six months or so and become quite tasty.” Long after the holidays are over, a little bit of Christmas can linger on in your beer fridge, ready with holiday cheer any time of year.

• The Spice is Right from Lazy Days Brewing: A 6.7% spiced chocolate porter with flavor notes that wouldn’t be out of place in a pumpkin pie or spiced eggnog. 

• Nightfall of Diamonds from Zoiglhaus and Ecliptic: This 7.6% imperial porter is a collaboration between two breweries, blending toffee and coffee flavors with orange and chocolate. It’s not marketed as a seasonal beer per se, but it tastes a lot like one of those chocolate oranges sold around the holidays.

• Yippee-KI-PA from Baerlic: A winter IPA based on everyone’s favorite Christmas action movie. This 7.2% seasonal offering is less about overwhelming bitterness and more about a rounded, roasty flavor that goes well with Christmas trees or exploding office buildings.

• Peregrin Palo Santo Porter from Montavilla Brew Works: A dark porter aged in Peruvian Palo Santo wood with hints of minty sweetness.

The Friday bout pits the 58-year-old former heavyweight champ against a much younger opponent whose fame is rooted in social media.

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Penn State labor and employment relations professor Paul Clark about blue-collar voters and their decision to back President-elect Trump in this election.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says President-elect Trump wants "measurable impacts" toward ending chronic disease within two years. About 60% of Americans suffer from at least one chronic disease.

Rebroadcast September 26, 2014 It's been almost two months since 18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson, but the reverberations surrounding his death continue. Brown's death was the fourth last summer in as many weeks in which an African American man was killed by law enforcement. In a special conversation this week, Basic Black goes beyond the headlines to explore the racial, historical, and cultural underpinnings of the relationship of law enforcement to communities of color and the meaning of protest in a post-civil rights movement era.

Panelists:
- Callie Crossley, Host, Under The Radar With Callie Crossley, WGBH News
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News
- Frank Rudy Cooper, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School
- Marcela Garcia, Regular Contributor to The Boston Globe, Editorial and Op-Ed Pages
- Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University

Photo: A man is moved by a line of police as authorities disperse a protest in Ferguson, Mo. early Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. On Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

February 13, 2015 Back to back storms in as little as two weeks dropped record amounts of snow on New England. The capacity of the MBTA’s equipment was put to the test, but the system buckled under the weight of the weather. In the face of widespread train delays and mounting criticism, MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott responded with a fiery press conference that’s not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. The day after her press conference, Scott submitted her letter of resignation. We’ll take a look at her tenure and immediate task at hand to get the trains back to normal.

Later in the show, as the Bay State Banner celebrates 50 years of reporting the news of New England’s communities of color, we discuss the continuing evolution of journalists of color.

Panelists:
- Latoyia Edwards, Anchor, NECN
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News
- Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College
- Yawu Miller, Senior Editor, The Bay State Banner
- Akilah Johnson, Reporter, The Boston Globe

May 29, 2015 This week on Basic Black - a vision for a new Boston. We take a look at Mayor Walsh’s Boston 2030, the first citywide plan in 50 years — it’s targeted to coincide with Boston’s 400th birthday.

Panelists:
- Callie Crossley, Host, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, 89.7 WGBH
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter
- Jerome Smith, Chief of Civic Engagement, City of Boston
- Ayanna Pressley, Boston City Councilor At-Large
- John Barros, Chief of Economic Development, City of Boston

Rates of near-sightedness are rising all over the world. But solutions to the epidemic are coming into focus and could be simpler than you think

Dozens of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be early examples of spindle whorls, a rotating tool used in textile making that was a step towards inventing the wheel

Evangelist Franklin Graham congratulated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Tuesday nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

A shark fisherman and professional roofer has been arrested after being accused of stealing over $194,000 from a church in Kentucky.

Nancy O'Brien Simpson Death by a thousand cuts.  There are as many postmortem reasons for the Trump landslide as there are pundits.  It was a historic comeback with inroads in every demographic group.  However, Trump did not win by millions of new voters joining the Trump Train he won because Democrats stayed home and did not vote for Kamala Harris.  Trump gained about 300,000 new voters and Democrats lost three million voters from the 2020 election.   This is my take on the top five reasons why the Democrats did not show up for Harris.

The Saraya al-Quds* group, a military wing of the radical Islamic Jihad* movement (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), released a new video of Alexander Trukhanov, a Russian citizen, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023. The video of the hostage posted on the Telegram channel of the terrorist group shows the man speaking Hebrew. The man complains about the difficult situation the hostages found themselves in. They do not have enough water and have run out of hygiene products, the man said. Fearing Israeli bombings and missile attacks, Trukhanov called on the Israelis not to forget about the hostages. He also urged the people of Israel to go to rallies and advocate for a ceasefire so that hostages could return home.

Famous Russian journalist, chef and TV presenter Alexey Zimin died. He was 52. The reason for the journalist's death remains unknown. Alexey Zimin was born in Dubna, a suburban town near Moscow, on December 13, 1971. He held the position of deputy editor-in-chief of Afisha Magazine. Zimin also founded Afisha Eda food publication and served as editor-in-chief of Afisha Mir, GQ and Gourmet magazines. The journalist hosted "Cooking with Alexey Zimin" show on NTV channel organised and organised food festivals. Zimin also opened several cafes, bars and restaurants.

Rutgers Health study uncovers vulnerabilities in drug-resistant TB, offering hope for improved treatments.

University of Central Florida's A Team with A Dream wins the 2024 CyberForce Competition(r). The mission of the competition is to equip the next generation of cybersecurity professionals with hands-on experience defending critical infrastructure.

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.

Rutgers Health study uncovers vulnerabilities in drug-resistant TB, offering hope for improved treatments.

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.

[Politics] :
The Supreme Court has upheld a suspended prison term for former Rep. Youn Mee-hyang, who was convicted of embezzling donations to an advocacy group for South Korean victims of sexual slavery during World War II. On Thursday the top court upheld the 18-month sentence, suspended for three years, after ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
A court review is underway for pretrial detention warrants for four people suspected of involvement in election nomination meddling involving first lady Kim Keon-hee, as well as illegal polling. The Changwon District Court started the warrant hearings Thursday afternoon for power broker Myung Tae-kyun, ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
Anchor: The annual state-administered College Scholastic Aptitude Test took place Thursday. This year, around 522-thousand people registered to take the exam at one-thousand-282 locations across the country. That includes a record number of retakers, after the quota increased for medical school ...

[more...]

[Politics] :
The special counsel bill mandating an investigation for first lady Kim Keon-hee has passed in the National Assembly. The main opposition Democratic Party introduced the bill, its third attempt following presidential vetoes for previous bills, and all 191 lawmakers present voted in its favor in a plenary ...

[more...]

[Inter-Korea] :
People who suffer damages as a result of North Korea’s trash balloon campaign will eventually be eligible for government compensation. The National Assembly passed an amendment to the Framework Act on Civil Defense during a plenary session Thursday, allowing the government to provide compensation for ...

[more...]

AI-enabled global payment network Klarna has announced that it...

For the first time, Uber will guarantee drivers an hourly wage of $20 an hour in Los Angeles, or $26 during peak times.; Credit: David Ramos/Getty Images

To keep demand high during the slower winter months, the ridesharing service, Uber, has cut fares by 20 percent in 48 markets – including Los Angeles and Orange County.

The company says a trip from West Hollywood to downtown will now be around nine dollars, instead of $11.

When Uber lowered prices in the past to muscle out competitors like Lyft and taxi services, passengers loved it but drivers have complained it puts an unfair squeeze on them, complaining their already low take went even lower.

Uber stresses the fact cutting fares actually helps drivers because they get more business. In a blog post, the company points to data from Chicago where fares dropped 23 percent last month compared to December 2013 while drivers' income increased by 12 percent.

But drivers have been skeptical whether volume can make up for the price drop. The company's claim that New York city drivers earn a median of $90,766 a year has been refuted. Slate talked to New York UberX driver Jesus Garay in October:

“They say it doesn’t hurt the pocket of the drivers,” Garay says of the 20 percent fare cuts. “It does. Because it’s impossible with those numbers to be in business.”

The way drivers see it, ride volume can only increase so much in response to lower prices. Garay says that on average, a ride takes him 20 minutes from start to finish: five minutes to reach the pickup location, five to wait for the customer, and 10 to drive to the destination. For a trip of that length, Garay says he’ll make $10 or $11. “So if you’re busy, you’re going to make three rides in an hour,” he explains. 

Newly flush with a $40 billion valuation, Uber is now willing to put its money where its mouth is; For the first time, Uber will guarantee its partners – as it calls them -  an hourly wage of $20 an hour in Los Angeles, or $26 during peak times. (The guarantee comes with a few conditions: Drivers have to accept 90% of trips, average at least one trip per hour, and be online for 50 minutes of every hour worked)

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Tom Rachal (R) receives a free meningitis vaccine from Dr. Wayne Chen at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation pharmacy on April 15, 2013 in Hollywood, California. Los Angeles County's unemployment rate is 7.9%, down from 9.2% a year ago, and once again it was healthcare that added the most jobs: 22,000.
; Credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

If you want a job in Los Angeles County, you’re best off being a nurse or a hotel worker and you’re less likely to find employment in manufacturing. 

We’re getting our first look at the employment numbers for 2014, which show mostly good news: California’s unemployment has fallen to 7 percent, the lowest rate in five and a half years. (The final numbers come out in March)

The state’s job growth outpaced the rest of the country for the third straight year, though it slowed slightly towards the end of the year.

California added jobs at a 2.2 percent annual rate last year, outpacing the nation’s 1.8 percent rate. 

Los Angeles County fared the worst as far as seasonally adjusted year-to-year job gains among California's major metropolitan areas, according to The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.:

• San Jose/Silicon Valley +4 percent
• San Francisco Bay Area + 3.8 percent 
• San Diego +3.3 percent
• Inland Empire +1.9 percent
• Orange County +2.3 percent
• Ventura +2 percent
• Los Angeles +1.7 percent

Los Angeles County's unemployment rate is 7.9 percent, down from 9.2 percent a year ago, and once again it was health care that added the most jobs: 22,000.

"Part of it is demographic, and part of it was the Affordable Care Act, which is helping more individuals take advantage of health care," said Robert Kleinhenz, Chief Economist at the L.A. County Economic Development Corp.

Aside from an aging population needing more health care, Kleinhenz adds that more people can afford to get medical treatment because of the improvement in the economy. 

With more money in their pockets, more people have also been traveling, which made leisure and hospitality the second-best area for job growth in the county, with 11,300 new jobs.

What's not doing well? 

Manufacturing, especially in non-durable goods – which includes food and clothing – lost the most jobs in L.A. County in 2014: 6,700 jobs. The only other sector that shed jobs was the government, which lost almost 3,800 jobs positions last year.

Kleinhenz also pointed to wholesale trade, which lost 300 jobs year-to-year in but saw job growth in the Inland Empire. 

"Some parts of the goods movement may be moving into the Inland Empire, where we have seen in recent years quite a bit of warehouse building taking place,” said Kleinhenz. 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

“Union members and non-union members have a strong interest in seeing our economy grow," said Rusty Hicks, the new head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which represents over 300 unions.; Credit: Ben Bergman/KPCC

Labor unions have led the fight to raise the minimum wage in several American cities, including Los Angeles, where the City Council is considering two proposals right now that would give raises to hundreds of thousands of workers (to $13.25 an hour by 2017 and $15.25 an hour by 2019).

But few of the unions' members have benefited directly from the initiatives. So why do unions care about a $15 wage for non-union workers? 

It’s part of a long-term strategy to protect the interests of their members, labor leaders say. They also see an opportunity to raise the profile of unions after years of falling membership.

"We can’t be the movement that’s just about us," said David Rolf, an international vice-president of SEIU, who led the first successful $15 minimum wage campaign in SeaTac, the town in Washington that is home to the region's similarly named airport. 

“We have to be the movement that’s about justice for all," Rolf added. "The labor movement that people flocked to by the tens of millions in the 1930s wasn’t known for fighting for 500-page contracts. They were known for fighting for the eight-hour day, fighting to end child labor.”

The idea that workers should earn $15 dollars an hour first came to the public’s attention during a series of fast food strikes that started in New York City in late 2012. Those workers didn’t just walk off the job by themselves. They were part of a campaign organized by unions, led by SEIU, which is made up mostly of public sector and health care workers.

$10 million fast-food strikes

The Service Employees International Union spent $10 million dollars on the fast food strikes, according to The New York Times. But none of those restaurants have unionized, and because it’s been so hard to form private sector union these days, they probably never will, said labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein.

“In effect what you have now is the SEIU – its hospital membership or its members working at the Department of Motor Vehicles – helping to raise the wages of fast food workers, but not their own wages,” Lichtenstein said.

That's because unionized workers earn far more than the current or proposed new minimum wages, in L.A. an average of more than $27 an hour, according to UCLA's Center for Research on Employment and Labor. 

The spread of the $15 minimum wage from SeaTac to Seattle to San Francisco — and now possibly Los Angeles — is a huge victory for labor unions, but it’s unlikely most of the people getting raises will ever be part of organized labor.

Still, the rank and file seem to support their unions' efforts.

“I personally support using our organization as a way to advocate for those who don’t have a voice," said Rafael Sanchez III, a teacher's assistant at Bell High School who's a member of SEIU Local 99. 

A challenging time for the labor movement

In the 1950’s, about one in three American workers belonged to a union. Last year, just 11 percent did – or 6 percent of private sector workers – the lowest numbers in nearly a century.

Rolf says the minimum wage campaigns mark a change in tactics for organized labor; Rather than the shop floor, the focus is on the ballot box and city hall.

“Since at least the 1980s, winning unions in the private sector has been a Herculean task," Rolf said. "The political process provides an alternative vehicle.”

And an increasingly successful one. It was voters who approved the first $15 wage, in Washington state in 2013, and another one in San Francisco last year.  

In Los Angeles, the issue is before the city council. Mayor Eric Garcetti opened the bidding, proposing a raise of $13.25 on Labor Day before six council members countered with $15.25.

The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor – lead by Rusty Hicks — is pushing for the higher option.

“Union members and non-union members have an interest in seeing our economy grow," said Hicks. "You can’t continue to have a strong, vibrant economy if in fact folks don’t have money in their pockets.”

Other benefits for unions: A safety net and a higher floor

Some union members see a higher minimum wage as a safety net.

Robert Matsuda is a studio violinist represented by the American Federation of Musicians, part of the AFL-CIO. Even though he’s not working for the minimum wage now, he worries that may not last: He’s getting fewer and fewer gigs as more film and TV scoring is outsourced overseas.

“I might have to take a minimum wage job in the near future, so it might directly affect me,” said Matsuda.

There’s also a more tangible benefit for unions, says Nelson Lichtenstein, the labor historian: A higher minimum wage means a higher wage floor to negotiate with in future contracts.

“It’s one labor market, and if you can raise the wages in those sectors that have been pulling down the general wage level – i.e: fast food and retail – then it makes it easier for unions to create a higher standard and go on and get more stuff,” said Lichtenstein.

On Friday morning, union members will rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall, calling on the council to enact a $15.25 an hour minimum wage as soon as possible.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

People using a coworking space.; Credit: Cross Campus

In a sign of increased desire of professionals to work remotely, the successful Santa Monica shared workspace Cross Campus is opening a second location in Pasadena later this month, and the company hopes to open eight others in Southern California and beyond in the next two years. 

Dubbed by one user as  the “nerve center” of the Silicon Beach tech scene, Cross Campus opened its membership-based workspace facility in Santa Monica in 2012.   

But co-founder Ronen Olshansky said the shared workspace phenomenon isn't limited to coders. 

"Fewer and fewer people are making the traditional drive into the corporate office," Olshansky said. "They're working remotely as professionals, going off on their own as freelancers, or they're starting their own companies as entrepreneurs."  

A forecast from Forrester Research says that 43 percent of workers will telecommute by 2016, compared to estimates of about a quarter of the workforce telecommuting last year. 

Olshansky said that, for many people, working from home or in a coffee shop isn't productive. 

That's led shared workspaces to pop up in Los Angeles, Culver City and Santa Monica. Among them: Maker City L.A., WeWork, NextSpace, Coloft and Hub LA.  

Los Angeles-based tech investor David Waxman said these kind of shared spaces are crucial for the early stages of tech ventures.

"When you’re just starting out, and capital is very scarce, having not to commit to an entire office but having part of an office is very important," Waxman said.  “There comes a collective energy when a bunch of entrepreneurs get together in the same space, even if they’re not working on the same project."

And he said Pasadena is a good choice for a shared workspace.

"It is the home of Caltech, the Arts Center, and IdeaLab — probably the world’s first tech incubator — started there," he said.

But he said the need isn't limited to Pasadena.

"In Silver Lake, in South Pasadena, in Glendale, you see a lot of little pockets of  people getting together, and as soon as there’s a critical mass, we’ll see co-working spaces like Cross Campus come into being," said Waxman, who named his investment firm TenOneTen after the two freeways that connect Santa Monica and the Westside to Pasadena. 

Alex Maleki of IdeaLab in Pasadena is happy a well-known company is opening up in his city. 

"Anything that helps attract talent and capital to the region," Maleki said, "is absolutely fantastic."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.